We’re knee deep in demo and designing phase right now and I’m so excited to share more from our house project! The house is COMPLETELY destroyed right now it seems like, so it’s so sad! The upstairs is like a tornado because we completely demoed it since it had two apartments (two kitchens, two laundry rooms, etc) to get it back to single family living. But we have visions for what it will look like when finished, and I’m drifting off into never never land each night with dreams of our house and the finished product. Well okay, sometimes nightmares, but mostly all good dreams! Or I can’t fall asleep because I’m thinking too much about design, ugh. Either way, it’s been a fun process so far and I’m learning WAY MORE than I ever thought I would know about anything house! See our first post and more pics of the original house here.
Our FIRST house goal goes to the … KITCHEN! I have huge visions for this space! The old kitchen was not original, in fact, it was an outdoor patio turned into a kitchen, so we weren’t dealing with a historic original space that we couldn’t change. But the one thing we definitely want to keep, is the CEILING! The ceiling has arched latticework that was covered up since who knows when, then discovered by the last owners in 2001 when they were changing a light fixture! It’s SOOOO BEAUTIFUL and they were even featured in This Old House magazine for the find! Latticework was really common for patios and this one has gooooorgeous woodwork and neat details! We will just paint it white to brighten it up!
More ceiling and you can see the skinny galley kitchen set up with minimal counter space, eeeek! Also that door goes to the backyard.
The kitchen was a galley kitchen that had undergone a remodel in 2001, but it was time to update again and this time we were going to open it up into the attached dining room. We had to take down one wall (see pic below) to open it up, but the flow is lovely and it will be a big beautiful kitchen!
KITCHEN DESIGN: There were 3 doors into the kitchen and no pantry, so we decided to close off two of the doors and add a pantry and a space for the fridge, freezer, and wine column. One of the doors was into the formal den, and we wanted that space to be really formal and dark with all the gorgeous wood paneling everywhere, so we closed off that door. That will now be where our fridge/freezer will go. Then the other door had beautiful skinny french doors that made the living room symmetrical and gorgeous and we also closed that off and that is where the pantry/breakfast cupboard will go. I begged and begged for this not to happen because I love the french doors! But there really was no other place for a pantry. And we didn’t need three doors into the kitchen. We are reusing those doors upstairs to go into Ivy’s room! They’ll match the exact doors that go into Faye’s room right now so that’ll be sooo cute for the girls. So that makes me feel better!!! Here are the two doors we are getting rid of, see pic below.
Here is the other side of the formal den door that will be walled off for the fridge/freezer/wine fridge. See below. It is a gorgeous door (and the doorknob and hardware of my antique brass dreams) and we are for sure going to reuse it somewhere in the upstairs! The stained glass to the sides of the door were not original. We tried to keep them but it just wasn’t working to with the space we needed for the fridge. That was sad :( We will try to reuse those somewhere in the house as well! They’re too pretty!!!
Now, the only entrance into the kitchen then will be through the dining room that is connected to the living room (see pic below). It has two very large french doors that open up into it and it will be so lovely. Plus the beams! Also, we will have a large island where the wall used to be that separated it.
The wall on the right is gone and is opened up to the kitchen now. Also look at the back at the original buffet! So excited about that! We will keep it as is and keep the beams as is!
We were also dealing with weird placement for the sink and oven. They were both on one wall and you hardly had any counter/working space (see below pic). We decided to move the sink to the island and then we were able to center the oven range against the wall. So now this way, we have plenty of counter space on each side! There was also a window against that wall that we decided to take out (see above pics). We have a HUGE window just beside that (see second pic below) and also the door to the outside on the other side of that (see above pic). So still plenty of light! And the window was pretty small so it wasn’t too sad getting rid of it and I’m a huge window lover.
Now let the demo being! Here are some demo pics! In progress!!!! WOO HOO!!!
That break in the ground will be where the island will be.
This:
Will turn into this:
And here is standing against the back wall of the dining room. Big open area now!
WHEW! It’s been a big process!!! I had no idea what a “flush inset” cabinet was until this remodel, amongst many other things! Learning a lot! Stay tuned tomorrow for my kitchen inspiration blog post as I scour through Pinterest! Also, I’ve posted a lot of stories on my Instagram (see profile here @kayleemaykoch) as I do tours and show the house. They’re all highlighted as “remodel” on my profile.
Project House Posts:
We’re moving to a new (old) house!
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My family use to live at 118 West 19th. From 1966 to around 1993. Great to see your remarkable remodeling. Do you have other post of your work?
Jeff – that is so neat that you lived in the house! It’s so historic and neat there, fun to put together the pieces of families that have walked through those doors! :) I have this post and one other post on it and that’s it so far. Keep on the blog though, I will definitely share more! And if you are into Instagram at all, I do a lot on there – @kayleemaykoch – keep in touch! :)
I love that you’re keeping the stained glass windows! It will be a beautiful kitchen!
There is stained glass everywhere in the house! Some original some not, either way, it’s all beautiful!
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